Over the years there have been great improvements in two specific aspects of inked ribbon handling. The first problem related to minimizing soiling of an operator's hand when changing or threading the ribbon. The second area of improvement was simplifying the threading process itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,121 to Roggenstein teaches an inked ribbon spool set which includes a combination guard and guide for the ribbon exposed between the two spools so that the set may be inserted without soiling the operator's fingers.
Ribbon structures with non-inked tabs on the ends have been proposed. The tabs such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 880,913 to Perry have been particularly adapted for threading ease and attachment to takeup and/or supply reels. U.S. Pat. No. 3,108,675 to Rooney discloses a ribbon with clean replacement segments with the further advantage that once an initial ribbon has been properly threaded, there is no need for manually rethreading a replacement ribbon. This is because when one ribbon is exhausted it is disconnected from the non-inked coupling strip leaving it still in the ribbon guide. The fresh ribbon is then spliced thereto.
Ribbon cartridges, too, include a non-inked portion to enable the operator to insert in the ribbon guide system without acquiring inked fingers. Still other ribbon handling systems include a cartridge which may be dropped and locked in place with no threading at all such as the IBM 463 Ribbon used with the IBM 5218 Printer.
Printer technology development has produced higher and higher print speed limits. As such development relates to inked ribbon handling, one result has been that the ribbon supply has been removed from the print element carrier to reduce the weight thereof. The ribbon supply cartridge is then held stationary while only a portion of inked ribbon is encased in a flexible guide which allows the required ribbon segment to be present at the travelling print point defined by the print element as it moves with its carrier. A ribbon handling system having the above described features is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,277,187 to Rello, 4,284,364 to Rello and 4,290,704 to Matthias.